• stoy@lemmy.zip
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    3 days ago

    “Presidential Alert”

    Not only is it wrong, but the name of the warning is stupid.

    Not that “Prime Minister Alert” would have been better.

    No, better to use something a bit more generic, here are some examples:

    “National Alert”

    “Class 5 Alert - Imminent danger!”

    “Government Alert”

    “Weather Alert”

    “Wildfire Alert”

    “Public Health Alert”

    “Presidential Alert” just sounds like a Trumpism, as if he was too good for normal alerts, and he “only responds to the most beautiful ‘Presidential Alerts’ presented on paper with gilded borders…”

      • Ziglin (it/they)@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        The settings at least on GrapheneOS (though I doubt it would be different on other aosp-like android versions) do say Presidential alerts.

        Screenshot of the "Wireless emergency alert" application's settings page, which displays toggles for different alert types. The first one is titled "Presidential alerts" with a description that says "National warning messages"

        • ImWaitingForRetcons@lemmy.world
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          2 days ago

          I wonder if it does that because it classifies it as a Presidential Alert since it’s targeted to US users and thus didn’t have way of designating it as a Critical AusAlert instead?

    • Kazumara@discuss.tchncs.de
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      3 days ago

      The name comes from the US WARN act through the US FCC, and originally they did call the top level alert the “Presidential Alert”, but this was changed in the meantime. Now it stands at these categories:

      WEA alerts only cover critical emergency situations. Consumers can receive four types of alerts:

      • “National Alerts” issued by the President of the United States or the Administrator of FEMA;
      • “Imminent Threat” alerts involving imminent threats to safety or life;
      • “AMBER Alerts” about missing children; and
      • “Public Safety Messages” conveying recommendations for saving lives and property.

      Participating carriers may allow subscribers to block all but National Alerts.

      Source

      This system was implemented using Cell Broadcast system which is standardized internationally. But I guess since the big US carriers were forced to implement WEA the strings from the US version made it into Android. So now some old versions of software may still show the old US specific text, even when used internationally.